BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Judiciary Square -- DC Courthouse (Old City Hall)

DC -- Judiciary Square -- DC Courthouse (Old City Hall):

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[1] DCOURT_090223_02.JPG	[2] DCOURT_090223_10.JPG	[3] DCOURT_090223_17.JPG
[4] DCOURT_090223_21.JPG	[5] DCOURT_090223_26.JPG	[6] DCOURT_090223_32.JPG
[7] DCOURT_090223_43.JPG	[8] DCOURT_090223_54.JPG	[9] DCOURT_090323_01.JPG
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[16] DCOURT_090410_20.JPG	[17] DCOURT_090425_07.JPG	[18] DCOURT_090425_08.JPG
[19] DCOURT_090425_20.JPG	[20] DCOURT_090425_29.JPG	[21] DCOURT_090428_04.JPG
[22] DCOURT_090428_09.JPG	[23] DCOURT_090428_16.JPG	[24] DCOURT_090428_39.JPG
[25] DCOURT_090428_45.JPG	[26] DCOURT_090428_50.JPG	[27] DCOURT_090428_55.JPG
[28] DCOURT_090428_60.JPG	[29] DCOURT_090627_02.JPG	[30] DCOURT_090627_07.JPG
[31] DCOURT_090627_12.JPG	[32] DCOURT_090627_15.JPG	[33] DCOURT_090627_23.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. DCOURT_090223_02.JPG: I had done two construction-watch tours of this building back in both 2007 and 2008. In my first visit, the area in front of the main entrance had been totally dug out as they put in a new auditorium. Now you'll see it's totally filled in.
2. DCOURT_090425_07.JPG: From http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/16/AR2009061603225_pf.html : Winning on Appeal Old City Hall's Expansion to Accommodate Courthouse Is Anchored by Modernist Atrium By Philip Kennicott Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 17, 2009 For 10 years, the building once known as Old City Hall has sat idle. At the south end of Judiciary Square, it is a subtle, humble presence: If you don't look twice and pause to admire the simplicity of its arched windows and Ionic portico, it blends into the city's stone and concrete background. But Old City Hall, which will be rededicated today as the new home of the District Court of Appeals, is one of the city's most venerable buildings, and one of its most storied. Begun in 1820, and expanded over the years, it helped define a fashionable and socially lively part of town in the early 19th century. It not only served as District's first city hall, but also as the site of some of the most dramatic court trials of that era. To accommodate the Court of Appeals, established by Congress in 1970 as the city's highest court, the building has been renovated and successfully expanded with a sexy glass box atrium on the north side. Ugly street-level parking has been removed and placed underground. A new landscape has been introduced that not only flatters the building but also makes it accessible to people who have disabilities. The interior has been renovated as well, including a new underground courtroom large enough to handle the bar ceremonies over which the Court of Appeals presides. The decision to place the Court of Appeals in the historic structure was mostly pragmatic. It freed up space in the grim Moultrie Courthouse, dreaded by all District residents as the site of biennial jury duty. The Moultrie building is configured to deal with the usual three-part circulation of a standard courthouse, with separate spaces for the public, the judges and the prisoners. The Court of Appeals doesn't deal directly with prisoners, so it made sense to move it into the smaller, more historic space. But there is an emotional appeal to its new home, as well. "The history of this building made this, in my opinion, a perfect home for the highest court in the District of Columbia," said Chief Judge Eric T. Washington. And what a history it has had. After Sam Houston used his cane to clobber a congressman in 1832, he was tried and convicted in the building for a "great outrage upon the public peace." It was here that a would-be assassin of Andrew Jackson was acquitted by reason of insanity in 1835, and the successful assassin of James A. Garfield was convicted in 1882. The building provided offices for Frederick Douglass when he served as a U.S. marshal and for Theodore Roosevelt when he was commissioner of the civil service in the late 19th century. And because it was the site of several trials in a notorious fugitive slave case -- the "Pearl" affair, in which abolitionists attempted to sail more than 70 slaves up the Chesapeake Bay to safety -- it is listed on the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. The building is just as deeply engaged with architectural history. Its first designer, George Hadfield, was one of a string of architects who did early work on the U.S. Capitol. More significantly, he designed Arlington House, now known as the home of Robert E. Lee, standing sentinel among the graves of Arlington National Cemetery. That makes it a curious counterpart to the National Building Museum at the north end of Judiciary Square, which was designed by Montgomery C. Meigs in 1887. It was Meigs, who as a Union Army quartermaster general, decided to start burying Union dead in the yard of Lee's old mansion. The glass atrium is a prominent addition to the space between the two historic structures, and far from diminishing them, its gentle dissonance enhances the dignity of the somewhat cluttered square, which is also home to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. The square glass box is a bit like the little black dress: elegant, never out of fashion and appropriate almost anywhere. Architecturally, it is one of the best things about the renovation. It repositions the entrance of the building from the south to the north side, where the courthouse is elegantly flanked by two lesser and later court buildings. The atrium is a rare, almost pure modernist gesture in a city where large public architecture generally tends to heaviness, compromise and bland decoration. A few blocks away, the glass box of Mies van der Rohe's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is feeling vindicated. The basic lines of the new atrium work so well in front of the old courthouse that one wonders if architect Hany Hassan took more pains than necessary to contextualize it. Hassan, of Beyer Blinder Belle, says he "felt strongly that this addition should be of its own time." But he also wanted to echo the older building's rhythms. Until around 1917, there had been a second, north-facing Greek-style portico where Hassan's glass box now sits. It was removed during a renovation from 1917 to 1919 -- one of several major changes to the building over its history -- and the box recalls its proportions. Its six front-facing support columns are drawn out away from the glass wall so that they read like classical columns. It's an elegant, respectful gesture, but once you begin overthinking a glass cube, you almost inevitably end up reducing its minimalist power. A great concern for transparency was always a part of the project, says Judith Robinson of Robinson & Associates, a historical survey firm that studied the site in preparation for its renovation. But Hassan's columns, and the horizontal cross structure that holds the glass in place, limit see-through. The pavilion becomes more monumental, and loses some of the inexhaustibly appealing miracle of pure glass. It's a small thing, and the box is transparent enough that the irony of its primary function -- as an atrium for security -- is still poignant. Security is given its unfortunate, symbolic due: It is the first and foremost architectural concern, the space that precedes all other spaces. The reorientation of the building has two other effects. On the inside, it helps make sense of the building's multiple levels. But Hadfield's magnificent south portico is now purely ornamental. From the beautifully renovated interior central hall, a doorway that exits onto the grand old porch is now triggered with an alarm. Unless you walk around to what is now the "back" of the building, and ascend its purely decorative staircase, you'll never realize that it has one of the most interesting views in downtown Washington. From the Mall, looking back at the old courthouse, the view is even more impressive (especially in winter when the leaves are down), with the relatively modest Hadfield building surmounted by the massive roof of the National Building Museum. It looks like a little Acropolis, a striking contrast to the denatured and bland civic architecture that surrounds it. Hadfield's city hall has been so often changed over the years that no one can feel a glass box violates its historical integrity. It has been preserved not as a relic, but as a functioning piece of civic architecture that will once again witness the minutiae of our legal quibbling. The public will even have some minimal access to the building, with a large open hall on the lower floor used for exhibition space and other public functions. On Indiana Avenue, on the building's south side, a historical marker recalls the glory days of Old City Hall, when Washington's streets flowed with mud and muck. It includes a picture that shows the structure with a dome that was never built and it notes that the building is empty and awaiting a new use by the District of Columbia. It's happy news to report that this marker is now out of date.
Wikipedia Description: District of Columbia City Hall
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

District of Columbia City Hall, also known as "Old City Hall" and the "District of Columbia Courthouse", is an historic building at Judiciary Square in downtown Washington, D.C. facing Indiana Avenue. Originally built for the offices of the D.C. municipal government, the District's City Hall was subsequently used as a Federal courthouse, and was the scene of several notable criminal trials including those of three accused presidential assassins. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. It now houses the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

History

The government of the City of Washington held a competition for the design of a new municipal building in 1818. George Hadfield, who had supervised construction of the United States Capitol from October 1795 to May 1798, submitted a design for a new city hall, but it was judged to be too costly. Hadfield eventually won the competition in 1820 with a revised version of his original plan, and construction began in August. The offices of the city government moved into the building in 1822. However, a lack of funds and other problems hindered construction and the building would not be completed in its entirety until 1849.

According to the NRHP nomination for the adjacent, compatibly-designed United States Court of Military Appeals Building (1910), the city hall building's south side plan is attributed to George Hadfield, but the north side plan is attributed to Robert Mills.

To raise funds needed to finish the building, the city leased out space during construction to other federal government offices. Tenants included the U.S. Circuit Court and the Recorder of Deeds office, then headed by noted black leader and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, (1818-1895), who also later served as U.S. Marshal for the District. Following passage of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862, the Old City Hall was used to process payments to slaveholders.

The federal government rented additional space in 1863 during the American Civil War and later purchased the building from the District government to house the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. In 1868, a statue of 16th President Abraham Lincoln sculpted by Lot Flannery was erected on the south side of the building, which became the first public monument in his honor. The offices of the D.C. government moved to the new District Building in 1908 and the Old City Hall was left to house the federal courts until they vacated the property in 1910.

In 1916, Congress approved funds for a complete building renovation. The building was stripped to its brick framing, and the stucco exterior was replaced with limestone blocks on a granite base. The building was rededicated as the U.S. Courthouse in 1922. The federal courts moved to the new E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in 1952 and the Old City Hall eventually became the headquarters of the U.S. Selective Service System. The building was named a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and was returned to the District government two years later for use by the local courts.

Prominent cases

Many famous cases were tried at the city hall while it was a U.S. courthouse. Former Tennessee Governor Sam Houston, (1793-1863), Governor of the State of Texas) was tried and convicted for assaulting a member of Congress (Ohio Rep. William Stanbery) after Stanbery slandered Houston in a speech on the House of Representatives floor in 1832. Richard Lawrence, the failed assassin of 7th President Andrew Jackson, (the first assassination attempt against an American chief executive) was tried on the site in 1835 under D.C. prosecuting attorney Francis Scott Key, (1779-1843), and was sentenced to a mental institution. The building was also the site of the 1867 trial of John Surratt, an alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln who was later acquitted. However, Charles J. Guiteau, the assassin of President James A. Garfield, was convicted at the courthouse in 1882.

The Old City Hall was the scene of a fugitive slave trial known as the "Pearl incident," which was the largest single escape by slaves attempted in U.S. history. Two men were convicted in 1848 of attempting to free more than 70 slaves by sailing them from Washington, D.C. down the Potomac River then up the Chesapeake Bay.

Current use

In 1999, the building closed for an extensive renovation by the architecture firm of Beyer Blinder Belle. Steel framing replaced the old masonry while leaving the stone fa�ade intact. A new glass atrium was constructed on the north side of the building facing Judiciary Square and is now the main entrance, as had been originally intended. The D.C. Courthouse was rededicated on 17 June 2009 as the home of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
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